Meet Your Favorite Authors

After graduating from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history, Barbara joined the staff of Cru in 1971. With her husband, Dennis, whom she married in 1972, the Rainey's co-founded FamilyLife, a ministry committed to helping marriages and families survive and thrive in our generation.

Barbara is a frequent speaker and resource for FamilyLife Today, the award winning nationally syndicated daily radio broadcast. She is the author or coauthor of more than 35 books, including the Moments Together for Couples, and Moments With You marriage devotionals, the Growing Together series of books for families, A Symphony in the Dark and her most recent Letters to My Daughters: The Art of Being a Wife. She is also the creator of Ever Thine Home, a line of home decor and teaching tools for families designed to make it easy for women to express faith at home in a way that is both biblical and beautiful.

Dennis and Barbara live in Little Rock, Arkansas. They have six adult children (plus three sons-in-law and two daughters-in-law) and nineteen grandchildren.

Germaine Griffin Copeland, founder and president of Word Ministries, Inc., is the author of the Prayers That Avail Much family of books. Her writings provide scriptural prayer instruction to help you pray more effectively for those things that concern you and your family and for other prayer assignments. Her teachings on prayer, the personal growth on the intercessor, emotional healing and related subjects have brought understanding, hope, healing, and liberty to the discouraged and emotionally wounded. She is a woman of prayer and praise whose highest form of worship is the study of God’s Word. Her greatest desire is to know God.

Word Ministries, Inc. is a prayer and teaching ministry. Germaine believes that God called her to teach the practical application of the Word of Truth for successful victorious living. After years of searching diligently for truth and trying again and again to come out of depression, she decided that she was a mistake. Out of the depths of despair she called upon the Name of the Lord, and the light of God’s presence invaded the room where she was sitting.

It was in that moment that she experienced the warmth of God’s love; old things passed away, and she felt brand new. She discovered a motivation for living—life had a purpose. Living in the presence of God she has found unconditional love and acceptance, healing for crippled emotions, contentment that overcomes depression, peace in the midst of adverse circumstances and grace for developing healthy relationships. The ongoing process of transformation evolved into praying for others, and the prayer of intercession became her prayer focus.

Germaine is the daughter of the late Reverend A.H. “Buck” and Donnis Brock Griffin. She and her husband, Everette, have four children, and their prayer assignments increase as grandchildren and great-grandchildren are born. Germaine and Everette reside in Roswell, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia.

Scot McKnight is an Anabaptist theologian and is the Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies at North Park University. The author of more than ten books and numerous articles and chapters in multi-authored works, McKnight specializes in historical Jesus studies as well as the Gospels and the New Testament. As an authority in Jesus studies, McKnight has been frequently consulted by Fox News, WGN, US News & World Report, Newsweek, TIME, as well as newspapers throughout the United States.^[1]^ McKnight is also an advocate of the controversial New Perspective on Paul.

Bob calls himself a "recovering lawyer" because after practicing law for 25 years, then becoming the Hon. Consul to Uganda, he gave up his law firm to pursue writing and speaking full time. The best part has been connecting with so many people who are on a terrific adventure as well.

Andy Crouch (MDiv, Boston University School of Theology) is executive editor of Christianity Today and the author of books such as Culture Making and Playing God. Andy serves on the governing boards of Fuller Theological Seminary and Equitas Group, a philanthropic organization focused on ending child exploitation in Haiti and Southeast Asia. He is also a senior fellow of International Justice Mission's Institute for Biblical Justice. His writing has appeared in Time, the Wall Street Journal and several editions of Best Christian Writing and Best Spiritual Writing.

Crouch served as executive producer for the documentary films Where Faith and Culture Meet and Round Trip, as well as the multi-year project This Is Our City, which featured documentary video, reporting and essays about Christians seeking the flourishing of their cities. He also sits on the editorial board for Books & Culture and was editor-in-chief of re:generation quarterly. He also spent ten years as a campus minister with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Harvard University.

A classically trained musician who draws on pop, folk, rock, jazz and gospel, Crouch has led musical worship for congregations of five to twenty thousand. He lives with his family in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania.